I'm a green mom, as well as an herbalist and holistic healer with over 15 years of experience. I write about gardening, green living, natural healing, good food, a bit of this, and a bit of that. Enjoy!

3.05.2010

Gentian Violet for thrush... and crafts?

Gentian Violet is an old remedy for fungal and yeast condition on the skin and within the orifices. It is not made from violets or from gentian, but does have the stunning, vivid purple color of a gentian flower. You can get it through most drugstores by order without a prescription for around $2.00. One tiny bottle will last a lifetime, as you only use a tiny bit. When babies have oral thrush and/or mama has sore, red nipples from thrush, a tiny bit painted on the nipples before feeding once per day, for three days, will almost always clear it up. Baby will have a punk-looking purple mouth for a few days, but the staining is not permament. I have used this remedy once with each of my babies for minor thrush at the beginning (both births had me on IV antibiotics throughout the delivery, creating the perfect environment for this condition in my body and my babies').

Gentian violet WILL stain any clothes it comes in contact with, and so it is generally recommended that you wear black and use old black t-shirts for burp clothes for a few hours after you use gv as a treatment... I got a tiny drop on my daughter's onesie, and it came out of the wash with a stunningly beautiful bright violet spot on it. Which of course gave me the idea: why not die the whole onesie with spots? And why not die a few more onesies and socks a plain purple? So I dotted the one onesie and let it dry, and then placed it in a bowl with some vinegar and water to set the stain (not that GV needs much help in that department!) Then I also made another small bowl with 1 tsp GV, 1 cup vinegar and 3 cups water, and soaked the other onesies and socks to get a nice solid purple color.

Here is a pic of the bowl of clothes before washing: the violet comes out a bit lighter, and more vivid, in the end. You can see the onesie with spots after it came out of the wash, still wet :) If you get any on your counter or staining your sink, a tiny bit of bleach in water will take it right out.